The future of parking
The future of parking
The Client
Parkwork is a California-based company providing custom-designed parking solutions for West Coast development projects. They offer a variety of parking solutions, including a fully automated electric vehicle parking system where drivers can leave their cars on a special “Portal” on the floor and let the automated mechanism do the rest.
UI/UX
Mobile
PM
QA
Overview
Period: 6 months.
Client location: USA.
Business model: Time & Material.
Services
UI/UX design, Flutter development, QA, Project management
The Challenge
Parkworks contacted Perpetio with a project of designing and developing a mobile app for electric vehicle owners to conveniently view and manage fully automated parking at their residences. The team sought a way to give visibility into the parking experience and EV charging with a convenient mobile solution. While the application had to be simple enough, it needed to include various features and parking-related information, like charging status, car retrieval information, and parking history. A clear and intuitive information organization was a must. Plus, the new parking app had to be available to users of various smartphone models, so creating a solution that runs on both iOS and Android was also on our to-do list.
The Solution
The Perpetio team started the work on the app with the UI/UX design. Our designer created a set of wireframes that presented a smooth user journey, allowing users to leave their car at the parking lot with one tap, check the charging information, retrieve a car with a swipe, and get timely updates about the car. Parkwork’s interface features screens with essential information and step-by-step instructions for vehicle charging and retrieving. Based on the wireframes, we proceeded to work on UI elements, like icons that clearly represent user actions and a suitable color palette that wouldn’t distract users. A critical aspect of our UI/UX design work was the app’s responsiveness and adaptivity to different devices and screen sizes. As the app was to run on both iOS and Android, we made sure all the UI elements are properly adapted to each OS. Our development team selected Flutter as the programming language for Parkwork. It allowed us to create a cross-platform application that can run both on iOS and Android devices with no issues.
The Result
Parkwork is a minimalistic application that presents all the necessary features for convenient parking and retrieving an EV. We focused on two primary colors, black and green, and organized the app’s interface around essential vehicle information. Users can check updates about the car charge percentage, driving range, parking cost prediction, kWh delivered, and CO₂ emission saved. They can simply swipe to retrieve the vehicle at any point and receive a time estimation for better planning. Plus, if the EV’s charge is not yet full, users get a warning and can decide to wait until a full charge. With a set of informative push notifications, there is no chance for EV owners to miss updates on the car being reparked, getting fully charged, or being ready for pickup. A Flutter code allows this application to run on iOS and Android both, so any smartphone user can enjoy the Parkwork application with the familiar design elements that are adapted to each OS.
Vehicle status
The Parkwork app displays all the necessary data about the vehicle’s current status. As EV parking is not only a means of storing a car but also charging, EV owners are able to see the battery status and amount of miles that they can go with the current battery charge. Plus, they can budget accordingly as the app offers a parking cost prediction.
Retrieve vehicle
Users can retrieve their vehicles with one swipe and view the retrieval status immediately. When a vehicle is delivered to the portal and ready to pick up, a user will receive a push notification informing them that they have 10 minutes to pick up the car. Otherwise, it will be re-parked. Better planning, less hustle — everything made for practicality and time efficiency.
Parking history
Users can view their parking history with details on the date, duration, and kWh delivered. Since it is organized chronologically and features a calendar view, parking history can be easily used for parking tracking or expense analysis. With an additional focus on energy efficiency, the app reflects the data on CO₂ emission saved and kWh delivered, helping users make environment-conscious decisions.
Technical Details
4 people
6 months
USA
Flutter
Google, Apple, Facebook
Firebase Crashlytics
Visual Studio Code
Auth0, car_api
Client-managed backend, GitLab Version Control